Author: mweiner3

[Update 1/26/22 6:00 PM]

Due to complications associated with a similar repair on the Hive cluster this morning, we have decided to postpone replacement of the storage cable on the Phoenix cluster. This repair to the Phoenix Lustre project & scratch storage will now occur during our upcoming maintenance period.

If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

[Update 1/26/22 5:45 PM]

The PACE team, working with our support vendor, has restored the Hive GPFS project & scratch storage system, and the scheduler is again starting jobs.

We have followed up directly with all individuals with potentially impacted jobs from this morning. Please resubmit any jobs that failed.

Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience that this outage may have caused you. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

[Update 1/26/22 10:40 AM]

The Hive GPFS storage system is down at this time, so Hive project (data) and scratch storage are unavailable. The PACE team is currently working to restore access. In order to avoid further disruption, we have paused the Hive scheduler, so no additional jobs will start. Jobs that were already running may fail or run without making progress. If you have such a job, please cancel it and resubmit it once storage availability is restored.

We will update you when the system is restored.

[Original Post 1/24/22 1:25 PM]

Summary: Hive project & scratch storage cable replacement potential outage and subsequent temporary decreased performance

What’s happening and what are we doing: A cable connecting one enclosure of the Hive GPFS device, hosting project (data) and scratch storage, to one of its controllers needs to be replaced, beginning around 10:00 AM Wednesday (January 26). After the replacement, pools will need to rebuild over the course of about a day.

How does this impact me: Since there is a redundant controller, there should not be an outage during the cable replacement. However, a similar previous replacement caused storage to become unavailable, so this is a possibility. If this happens, your job may fail or run without making progress. If you have such a job, please cancel it and resubmit it once storage availability is restored.
In addition, performance will be slower than usual for a day following the repair as pools rebuild. Jobs may progress more slowly than normal. If your job runs out of wall time and is cancelled by the scheduler, please resubmit it to run again.

What we will continue to do: PACE will monitor Hive GPFS storage throughout this procedure. In the event of a loss of availability occurs, we will update you.

Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience that this temporary limitation may cause you. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

[Update 1/10/22 3:45 PM]

Testflight environments are now available for you to prepare for the upgrade of PACE’s Phoenix, Hive, and Firebird clusters to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.9 operating system from RHEL 7.6 during the February 9-11 maintenance period. The required upgrade will improve the security of our clusters to comply with GT Cybersecurity policies. 

All PACE researchers are strongly encouraged to test all workflows they regularly run-on PACE. Please conduct your testing at your earliest convenience to avoid delays to your research. An OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) upgrade requires rebuilding our MPI software, including updates and modifications to our scientific software repository. PACE is providing updated modules for all our Message Passing Interface (MPI) options. 

For details of what to test and how to access our Testflight-Coda (Phoenix) and Testflight-Hive environments, please visit our RHEL7.9 upgrade documentation.  

Please let us know if you encounter any issues with the upgraded environment. Our weekly PACE Consulting Sessions are a great opportunity to work with PACE’s facilitation team on your testing and upgrade preparation. Visit the schedule of upcoming sessions to find the next opportunity.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

Running many or extended resource-intensive processes on the login nodes slows the node for all users and is a violation of PACE policy, as it prevents others from using the cluster. We would like to make you aware of recent improvements to our headnode violation detector.

PACE may stop processes that improperly occupy the headnode, in order to restore functionality for all members of our user community. Please use compute nodes for all computational work. If you need an interactive environment, please submit an interactive job. If you are uncertain about how to use the scheduler to work on compute nodes, please contact us for assistance. We are happy to help you with your workflows on the cluster.

If you run processes that overuse the headnode, we will send an email asking you to refrain from doing so. We have recently updated our violation detector to ensure that emails are sent to the proper user and to adjust the logic of the script to align it with policy.

Thank you for your efforts to ensure PACE clusters are an available resource for all.

Summary: Reboot on login-hive1 on Tuesday, December 21, at 10:00 AM

What’s happening and what are we doing: As part of our preparations for the RHEL7.9 testflight environment that will be available in January, PACE will reboot the login-hive1 headnode on Tuesday, December 21, at 10:00 AM. Hive has two headnodes, and the login-hive2 headnode will not be impacted. The load balancer that automatically routes new user login-hive connections to either login-hive1 or login-hive2 has been adjusted to send all new connections to login-hive2 beginning the afternoon of December 15.

How does this impact me: If you are connected to login-hive1 at the time of the reboot, you will lose your connection to Hive, and any processes running on login-hive1 will be terminated. Running interactive jobs submitted from login-hive1 will also be disrupted. Batch jobs will not be affected. Users connected to login-hive2 will not be impacted. Users who connected to Hive prior to Wednesday afternoon may be on login-hive1 and should complete their current work or log out and back in to Hive before Tuesday. Users who ssh to login-hive.pace.gatech.edu beginning this afternoon will all be assigned to login-hive2 and will not be impacted. If you specifically ssh to login-hive1.pace.gatech.edu, then you will still reach the node that is scheduled to be rebooted and should complete your session before next Tuesday.

What we will continue to do: PACE will monitor the Hive headnodes and ensure that login-hive1 is fully functional after reboot before re-initiating the load balancer that distributes user logins between the two headnodes.
Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience that this temporary limitation may cause you. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

[Update 11/12/21 11:30 AM]

The pool rebuilding has completed on Hive GPFS storage, and normal performance has returned.

[Update 11/10/21 11:30 AM]

The cable replacement has been completed without interruption to the storage system. Rebuilding of the pools is now in progress.

[Original Post 11/9/21 5:00 PM]

Summary: Hive project & scratch storage cable replacement potential outage and subsequent temporary decreased performance

What’s happening and what are we doing: A cable connecting one enclosure of the Hive GPFS device, hosting project (data) and scratch storage, to one of its controllers has failed and needs to be replaced, beginning around 10:00 AM tomorrow (Wednesday). After the replacement, pools will need to rebuild over the course of about a day.

How does this impact me: Since there is a redundant controller, there should not be an outage during the cable replacement. However, a similar previous replacement caused storage to become unavailable, so this is a possibility. If this happens, your job may fail or run without making progress. If you have such a job, please cancel it and resubmit it once storage availability is restored.
In addition, performance will be slower than usual for a day following the repair as pools rebuild. Jobs may progress more slowly than normal. If your job runs out of wall time and is cancelled by the scheduler, please resubmit it to run again.

What we will continue to do: PACE will monitor Hive GPFS storage throughout this procedure. In the event of a loss of availability occurs, we will update you.

Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience that this temporary limitation may cause you. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

Summary: TensorFlow update required due to identified security vulnerability

What’s happening and what are we doing: A security vulnerability was discovered in TensorFlow. PACE has installed the patched version 2.6.0 of TensorFlow in our software repository, and we will retire the older versions on November 3, 2021, during our maintenance period.

How does this impact me: Both researchers who use PACE’s TensorFlow installation and those who have installed their own are impacted.

The following PACE installations will be retired:

Modules: tensorflow-gpu/2.0.0 and tensorflow-gpu/2.2.0

Virtual envs under anaconda3/2020.02: pace-tensorflow-gpu-2.2.0 and pace-tensorflow-2.2.0

Please use the tensorflow-gpu/2.6.0 module instead of the older versions  identified above. If you were previously using  a PACE-provided virtual env provided  inside the anaconda3 module, please use the separate new module instead. You can find more information about using PACE’s TensorFlow installation in our documentation. You will need to update your PBS scripts to call the new module, and you may need to update python code to ensure compatibility with the latest version of the package.

If you have created your own conda environment on PACE and installed TensorFlow in it, please create a new virtual environment and install the necessary packages. You can build this environment from the tensorflow-gpu/2.6.0 virtual environment as a base if you would like, then install other packages you need, as described in our documentation. In order to protect Georgia Tech’s cybersecurity, please discontinue use of any older environments running prior versions of TensorFlow on PACE.

What we will continue to do: We are happy to assist researchers with the transition to the new version of TensorFlow. PACE will offer support to researchers upgrading TensorFlow at our upcoming consulting sessions. The next sessions are Thursday, October 28, 10:30-12:15, and Tuesday, November 2, 2:00-3:45. Visit our training page for the full schedule and BlueJeans links.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this security update, and please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience that this may cause you. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

[Update 11/5/21 3:15 PM]

During the November maintenance period, PACE separated Torque and Moab, the two components of the Hive scheduler. This two-server setup, mirroring the Phoenix scheduler arrangement, should improve stability of the Hive scheduler under heavy utilization. We will continue to monitor the Hive scheduler. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.

[Update 10/15/21 5:15 PM]

The Hive scheduler is functioning at this time. The PACE team disabled several system utilities that may have contributed to earlier issues with the scheduler. We will continue to monitor the scheduler status and to work with our support vendor to improve stability of Hive’s scheduler. Please check this blog post for updates.

[Update 10/15/21 4:15 PM]

The Hive scheduler is again functional. The PACE team and our vendor are continuing our investigation in order to restore stability to the scheduler.

[Update 9/23/21 3:15 PM]

The replacement batteries have reached a sufficient charge, and Hive GPFS performance has been restored. Thank you for your patience during this maintenance.

[Original Post 9/23/21 12:30 PM]

Summary: Battery replacement on Hive project & scratch storage will impact performance today.
What’s happening and what are we doing: UPS batteries on the Hive GPFS storage device, holding project (data) and scratch storage, need to be replaced. During the replacement, which will begin shortly this afternoon, storage will shift to write-through mode, and performance will be impacted. Once the new batteries are sufficiently charged, performance will return to normal.
How does this impact me: Hive project and scratch performance will be impacted until the fresh batteries have sufficiently charged, which should take approximately 3 hours. Jobs may progress more slowly than normal. If your job runs out of wall time and is cancelled by the scheduler, please resubmit it to run again.
What we will continue to do: PACE will monitor Hive GPFS storage throughout this procedure.
Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience that this temporary limitation may cause you. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to pace-support@oit.gatech.edu.